How to get past the robots reading your resume
Jillian Perkins-Marsh, Alumni Career Counsellor
Chances are, if you have ever applied through an online portal, you have encountered applicant tracking systems (ATS). ATS helps recruiters with the initial sorting of resumes to determine who has the main skills, qualifications and experience to move ahead in the selection process. Many medium and large size companies are investing in the recruitment software, with 98% of Fortune 500 companies using ATS. As postings become more accessible to job seekers, the numbers of applicants rise and companies need technology to filter the applications.
A lot of advice (sometimes contradictory) has been written about how to get past the software and into an interview. It can be stressful knowing what to do or not to do. Relax. There are 200+ different ATS systems and it is impossible to know which one a company is using when you apply.
The best offense is a good defense. Choose strategies that will be applicable to the majority of situations to ensure your resume gets reviewed successfully by the bots, and later by human recruiters.
Customize your resume
This is nothing new. Resumes have always had to be customized, but it’s doubly important now.
· Clues are in the job posting. Describe your experiences using keywords, both verbs and nouns.
· Use the keywords strategically and in different places on your resume and cover letter.
· Select strong verbs to ensure your bullet points explain your experiences effectively.
· Use a free resume analyzer online to compare the posting with your customized resume. For example, jobscan.co .
Get creative and save time
Word clouds are a visual way to identify the key words for the jobs to which you are applying. Here’s what to do:
i) Find 4–5 job postings for the same type of job you are interested in.
ii) Copy and paste the job descriptions into a wordcloud. A couple popular ones include, wordle.net and jasondavies.com/wordcloud.
iii) The resulting word cloud will show you visually what words are most common, based on their size and frequency.
iv) Review your resume and cover letter to ensure the key words are represented. This may save you time in the customization process.
The truth about graphics
Many old ATS tips will say to avoid graphics at all costs. While it’s true that an ATS cannot read graphics, it will read around it. If you want to include a graphic to add some visual appeal for the human reader, just be aware that an ATS will skip over any content inside the graphic. Be sure to include the meaning of the graphic/context elsewhere, if applicable.
Keep in mind that people will be viewing the document as well and visual attractiveness is appealing to recruiters.
Be cautious with some online resume templates. Some templates will save the resume as an image, which will get you 0 points with an ATS!
Obscure job title?
Use an equivalent job title to match with the terms the hiring manager is likely to look for. For example, Customer Service Representative (Guest Experience Facilitator). The real title is in brackets and its equivalent is listed first to catch the attention of both computer and hiring manager.
Details, details, details
· Use standard sans serif fonts such as Arial, Arial Narrow, Tahoma, Calibri, Verdana
· Avoid using the header and footer function in Word.
· Avoid text boxes and tables as some systems may not be sophisticated enough to read the content
· Spell check. Words will not be recognized correctly if misspelled.
· Call your work experience section, ‘Work Experience’
· Ensure your dates are aligned consistently (ie. on the right hand side of the page)
